Parks Canada won’t go ahead with plans for a Bowen Island National Park Reserve after the community voted 55 per cent against the proposal last week.

The national park service had been studying the possibility of adding a large portion of Bowen Island onto the Gulf Island National Park Reserve, including both public land and Crippen Park, but many community residents raised fears of having to pay park fees and navigate ferry gridlock.

The vote, which took place Nov. 19, was organized by the municipality following the release of the concept plan in September, and Parks Canada had promised to abide by the result.

Spokesman Richard Carson said all work has been halted.

“It’s a beautiful place, we conclude everything was favourable so we certainly would have carried on (had the vote been positive),” he said. “But we felt they made their position clear.”

The vote doesn’t affect the remainder of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, which was established in 2003, nor the planning for a marine conservation area in the Georgia Strait.